{"id":238653,"date":"2026-05-20T22:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238653\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T22:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:41:16","slug":"coney-island-mermaid-parade-lands-20k-boost-from-brooklyn-borough-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238653\/","title":{"rendered":"Coney Island Mermaid Parade lands $20K boost from Brooklyn borough president"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"0rrba\">It looks like the city has scrounged up enough spare change to keep mermaids on Coney Island after all.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"catsf\">The 44th annual Mermaid Parade is expected to go on this summer after its budget got another boost in the tens of thousands of dollars this month.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"6q7g\">Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso announced Wednesday that he\u2019s allocating $20,000 from his discretionary fund to Coney Island USA, the nonprofit that organizes the parade, after the group warned earlier this year that mounting costs could force the event to shut down.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"1njfg\">\u201cThe work that we need to do in Coney Island after COVID is significant,\u201d Reynoso said. \u201cIt lost a lot of jobs that were shuttered, the attendance into Luna Park and into Coney Island Beach is not what it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9vlk\">Reynoso said he\u2019s interested in putting the Mermaid Parade \u201cunder his belt,\u201d which could entail continuing to partially fund the event through his discretionary fund in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"e376c\">The latest <a href=\"https:\/\/gothamist.com\/arts-entertainment\/coney-island-mermaid-parade-set-to-return-after-urgent-financial-crisis\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">funding<\/a> comes after Coney Island USA launched a public fundraising campaign in March, saying it faced an \u201curgent financial crisis.\u201d Organizers blamed lingering financial fallout from the pandemic, along with costs tied to opposing the proposed Coney Island casino project.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"8ijs9\">The nonprofit has since raised more than $40,000 through a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/save-the-mermaid-parade-wvx72\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">GoFundMe<\/a> campaign, according to its fundraising page.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3tu6s\">Combined with the latest $20,000 allocation, along with sponsorships and vendor revenue, organizers said they\u2019re now close to meeting their fundraising goal.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"24l06\">The spectacle on Surf Avenue, which organizers have long billed as the nation&#8217;s largest parade, takes inspiration from traditional Mardi Gras celebrations and sees swaths of attendees transform themselves into merfolk.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"fis5o\">The extra funds mean the parade\u2019s organizers can move ahead by covering some of the necessary preparations, like obtaining the proper licenses, bleachers and even screen printing costs.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"3v2rf\">Altogether, it takes upwards of $120,000 to run the Mermaid Parade, according to Coney Island\u2019s artistic director, Adam Rinn.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"f34b9\">\u201cAt this point, we\u2019re pretty darn close,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re necessarily there yet, I don\u2019t know if the money is necessarily in the bank at the moment, but we\u2019re confident that we\u2019ll have all of our costs covered by parade day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"9gcg8\">The Mermaid Parade is scheduled for June 20. Participants will march from West 21st Street and Surf Avenue toward West 10th Street before heading onto the Boardwalk and ending at Steeplechase Plaza.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"7j9rf\">Coney Island USA\u2019s most recent federal tax forms list more than $5.5 million in total assets, most of it tied to the value of the nonprofit\u2019s historic Surf Avenue building, as previously reported by Gothamist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It looks like the city has scrounged up enough spare change to keep mermaids on Coney Island after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-238653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}